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Monday, January 31, 2011

SOS Line of Inquiry Requires Input from the Best and the Brightest Among Us
The Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference (GOSRC) has been ongoing for over 9 months now. We have received oil spill remediation proposals, implementation plans, and mitigation propositions from all over the world. After working with CBS 60 Minutes in the wake of their Special Program entitled Blowout: The Deepwater Horizon Disaster we interviewed numerous whistleblowers and insiders throughout the Oil & Gas Industry, as well as from various contractors and consultants who, by virtue of their specialties possess intimate knowledge of offshore drilling operations.We were also privileged to speak with many retired, fired and disillusioned personnel from the assorted US Government Agencies and Departments which were involved, either directly or indirectly, with “setting up” the greatest manmade disaster in US history.
This is the context within which we have also received and gathered a plethora of data and information regarding a specific aspect of this spill, which almost always stayed under the radar… until now. We are compelled by the sheer profundity and far-reaching ramifications of this matter to offer this short paper. And, we thank that very narrow niche of geology researchers, oil spill investigators and armchair detectives who have become increasingly vocal about a potentially catastrophic occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). It is clear that the very SOP’s (standard operating procedures of the entire Oil & Gas Industry have greatly contributed to this devolving situation, and therefore this global enterprise must be seriously re-considered.
The specialty areas known as geohazards assessment, geophysics study and geotechnical analysis concern themselves with the rather arcane discipline of seafloor topography, sub-seafloor geology, among many others when applied within the realm of offshore drilling. Given the relentless transformation of the sub-seafloor geological formations and stratification at the Macondo Prospect in the GOM, a very serious and highly consequential set of questions has repeatedly surfaced. As Follows:
I. Why did BP, knowingly and purposefully, drill in such close proximity to a salt formation/mud volcano?
II. Why did BP, with the full blessing of the US Coast Guard, execute not one, but two, failed attempts to cap the gushing well, knowing that the frozen hydrates would guarantee the failure of both containment domes?
III. Why did BP create a transparently false narrative for public consumption around the drilling of the two relief wells… with virtually no follow-up?
IV. Why was BP so determined to disappear the oil as quickly as possible in the face of fierce public opposition to the highly toxic and essentially ineffective dispersant dispensed, and in blatant violation of EPA directives to discontinue the use of COREXIT?
V. Why was BP, a foreign, transnational corporation, given the lead position in the unified command structure established by the Federal Government, to effectively enforce martial law in U.S. territorial waters, even to the extent that the five concerned sovereign states have been held hostage throughout the entire crisis? Bear in mind that this unlawful, unconstitutional, and treasonous conduct on the part of the US Government is unprecedented in American history, as is the lawless and criminal behavior of BP et al.
Please be aware that we could offer a much more comprehensive list of extremely critical and disconcerting questions about this oil spill. However, our intention here is not to ascertain good answers to each individual question, as there are no reasonable or rational explanations. Rather our goal is to more fully understand, from the highest and broadest perspective, what in the world is really going on here?
Just as 911 has been proven to be an inside job (by those competent and authoritative investigators who have thoroughly researched this crime against the USA) that was designed, planned, coordinated, executed and covered up by the US Federal Government in collaboration with a vast array of other entities, both foreign and domestic, it appears that this “disaster of the millennium” has a very similar etiology.
We have thoroughly dissected the corpse of the Macondo Well, as well as the seafloor and sub-seafloor geology of the surrounding area, at this site for months. We are now obligated to direct your attention to a much more weighty and significant revelation, which demands the collective attention of the nation, if not the entire world community.
We introduce this subject by posting an email which we sent out just last week. The email is followed by an unedited explanation of what may be the true reason why the BP Gulf Oil Spill was made to happen on purpose (aka MIHOP).
In the interest of acquiring as much high integrity input and feedback concerning this dire and demanding situation, we strongly encourage each and every reader to disseminate this link as broadly and quickly as possible. If the essential thesis is correct as stated, we have before an unparalleled challenge of truly epic proportions. We repeat that we do not know the true status of things deep in the Earth, and especially with regard to the core, mantle and lithospheric crustal regions and their very dynamic relationship to each during these times of great planetary flux.
If there is any geologist or astronomer who can corroborate or invalidate any of the statements presented in the post below, please forward all relevant correspondence to the following contact information:
Tom Termotto, National Coordinator
Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference (International Citizens’ Initiative)
Tallahassee, FLhttp://oilspillsolutionsnow.org/oilspillsolution@comcast.netSKYPE: Gulf_Advocate
***********************************************************************************
Recent email solicitation for competent assistance and expert consultation:
To Whom It May Concern,
We have sent the piece below to a select group of individuals. If you have received it, it is because you are well respected as a scientist, researcher, investigative journalist, oil spill expert/writer/advocate, critical thinker or armchair detective.
Please use your discrimination as to who ought to receive this document as it contains enough accurate information, which we have verified in the course of working on the BP Gulf Oil Spill, to cause an unwanted stir. You all know of our 9 month long Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference. We have folks from all over the world contributing from different areas of expertise and knowledge who are very smart and aware of these matters. Highly conscious and spiritual, too, so their truthseeking is leading them in the direction of ascertaining the current realities for the benefit of humankind.
We would sincerely appreciate, for those who have the time and interest, an honest critique of the science contained in this assessment. I have followed the author on other topics, and share many of his beliefs about the distinct possibility of the existence of a brown dwarf star closer than any astronomer will say. How close, we do not know. As for the uptick in comet activity, as well as solar activity or lack thereof, it has all been verified scientifically and can be confirmed at the appropriate authoritative websites. Any lifelong stargazer/skywatcher can easily attest to the extraordinary and meteoric changes in our own solar system by viewing with the naked eye alone. Some of the other planets have experienced such dramatic changes over the past two decades as to boggle the scientific minds. The relevant astronomy sites all confirm this fact without debate, just look at Mars or Venus for instance.
Please be aware that I have often viewed both Katrina and the BP Gulf Oil Spill as great omens of sorts. Each event carried a message far greater than the manmade disasters that they were. In other words, regardless of what the intentions of TPTB were, the Higher Power was using these truly apocalyptic events to tell the human populations living along the Gulf coastline that it was no longer a safe area. The predominantly black diaspora in the wake of Katrina is a perfect and unprecedented example of a whole demographic being picked up and plopped down wherever the FEMA “tornado” saw fit! As for the GOM oil spill, it was a defining moment in world history for anyone with eyes and ears. And again the coast was under all kinds of assaults, as it still is and will be for a LONG time.
Let’s not forget that this very same stretch of coastline is also known as “Hurricane Alley”. Therefore, 6 months out of every year we sit and wonder where the next Ivan, Katrina or Camille will hit. When you overlay the approx. 4000+ operating oil and gas rigs, and 27,000 abandoned platforms in the Gulf, it is very easy to see an ‘Atlantis-style’ setup in the making. Geological records clearly indicate that the Gulf has been the site of other major events over the eons, especially the southern GOM more recently.
We remind everyone who receives this email that, in the wrong hands, this information can be used to create much fear and apprehension about the future. So, we ask that you wait to disseminate widely until we receive enough feedback (based on hard scientific research and intuitive knowing) to publish a ‘peer-reviewed’, formal report which will be completed poste haste.
Thanking you in advance for any input/feedback,
Tom Termotto
Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference“The more informed, the better we can prepare and respond.”
************************************************************************************Unedited Post by John Dinardo
Date: Wednesday, 26-Jan-2011 14:32:27
Please stay with me on this scientific analysis of the mechanism which will cause land masses to arise out of the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico. The conclusion of my theory:
“Land masses will arise out of the Gulf of Mexico,”
was related, three to four years ago, to Mark, my acquaintance who received this information from his geologist friend who works for the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The resultant tsunamis and methane gas bursts will annihilate many millions of unsuspecting residents within miles of the coast, all the way around, from Mexico to Florida, to Cuba, Haiti, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.
I hope to inspire you to relay this analysis to concerned people everywhere. I plead with you to study this analysis and pass it on, in order to spark public action movements to save lives, for these seabed upheavals can occur any day from now. – John DiNardo
~~ Why Gulf of Mexico Land Masses Must Arise ~~
Gulf of Mexico effluents display a mysterious white substance, yellow sulfur, and red iron, probably from the Earth’s molten iron “outer core,” plus other substances from the “lower mantle,” which is right above the outer core. At the core/mantle boundary (CMB), large avalanches of the quasi-solid mantle edge of the CMB break off, due to heating, by electromagnetic induction, of both the molten iron outer core and the solid iron inner core, the latter being Earth’s innermost mass, residing at the center of the Earth. The heating of the outer core is also intensified by the long period cyclical buildup of thermally insulative mantle magma, solidifying along the edge of the lower mantle, bounding the upper edge of the outer core, this margin being the CMB. Hence, this solidifying magma margin acts as a thickening insulation blanket, further heating the molten iron outer core. However, it is important to realize that most of the heating of the outer core is now being generated by the well known phenomenon of “electromagnetic induction,” now generated by plasma-saturated comets which have been observed by scientists over the past five to ten years.
So now, Earth’s CMB has these prolific avalanches of loosened magma, sloughing off from the lower mantle margin into the molten iron outer core, and the obvious effect is that this mantle erosion proceeds like a drill bit, boring tunnels up through the very thick viscous mantle, all the way up until the tunnel eventually reaches a blockage presented by the lithosphere, which is the rigid crust of Earth’s surface, overlaying the less rigid uppermost mantle margin.
Understandably, molten iron from the outer core, plus newly molten magma encircling this hot newly drilled tunnel, flows like a slow oozing fountain, all the way up to the blockage at the lithospheric crust, and eventually the super heated liquefied column of magma rock and iron mixture melts the solid lithospheric crust like a gushing hot spring would melt a surface layer of ice.
This rising hot fountain is called a “mantle plume,” or “thermal plume,” one of which also exists at the eastern tip of Indonesia, showing that mantle plumes are prevalent worldwide. A mantle plume is similar to the lava plume that you see within a common household lava lamp, wherein an electric heating element at the base of the lamp heats up a puddle of lava, causing the puddle to rise up toward the surface in a plume of lava.
When this iron/magma column rises as a mantle plume, from the outer core/lower mantle boundary (CMB) to the uppermost edge of the upper mantle, the plume is initially blocked by the thin crustal layer, the “lithosphere,” at the Gulf of Mexico seabed. Eventually, the molten mantle plume dissolves or liquefies the thin lithospheric crust, effectively punching a hole in the seabed. This is the hole in the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico, which British Petroleum deliberately drilled into! Why deliberately?? I have testified to you that, THREE TO FOUR YEARS AGO, a U.S. Geological Survey informant relayed to me, through Mark, that they expect land masses to arise out of the Gulf of Mexico.
The reason why they drilled into the volcano was to TEMPORARILY PREVENT THE PEOPLE FROM REALIZING that this is actually a burgeoning catastrophic worldwide oil bursting phenomenon, and the powers-that-be are now in great fear that inevitable public realization will awaken the peoples of the World to the evidence that exists (if they are willing to examine it) that this is just one of many types of natural disasters which are now about to break out in a growing drum beat. The powers-that-be want you to think that BP caused these globally bursting natural oil gushers, with just a puny seven-inch drill pipe.
How gullible do they think we are? The ruling elite would rather have you believe that man caused this disaster, because when the people find out that they are in a game of natural disaster dodge-ball, they will break free from their psychological matrix cage of obedience to the tyrannical illegitimate imposters raping them from the power stage of central government. These ruling rapists are afraid that we may no longer be forcibly obedient to them, and that we may not pay our taxes, because, when people realize that these are natural disasters, and NOT just one BP disaster, the people will then fear a greater master than the ruling elite, the people will then fear the Master in the heavens, because that is the source of the electromagnetic heating of Earth’s core. This electromagnetic source is plasma engulfed comets being drawn into our Solar System by the immense gravitational pull of our incredibly massive Sun.
It is strikingly obvious: the apple fell down from the tree, and hit Sir Isaac Newton on the head, due to the mutual pulling force of gravity, which universally exists between two or more masses. Likewise, comets are being drawn in from deep space by the tremendous pulling force of gravity between these comets and
our Sun.
Getting back to the subject of Gulf of Mexico land masses arising, the consequences of a mantle plume punching through the
lithosphere, at the Gulf of Mexico seabed and elsewhere, are two-fold:
1) undersea volcanoes erupt, and indeed, oceanographers and volcanologists are now expressing alarm over the drastic increase in undersea volcanic eruptions, all over the World;
2) seabeds begin to bulge upward, due to the profusion of gases, such as methane, into newly formed pockets where the uppermost mantle margin meets the lithospheric crust, both at surfaces of seabeds and at crustal surfaces of land areas. There are now many reports of methane gas coming out of the ground, in Texas, in Colorado, in Pennsylvania, etc. There is a recent report of methane gas shooting out of a home water faucet, being fed from a private well. These newly formed pockets of rising gases strikingly explain the recent avalanche of reports of seabeds bulging all over the World, as indicated by drastically diminishing footage readings transmitted by ocean buoys, worldwide.
Notice, that the powers-that-be will never tell you what the day-by-day buoy depth readings are in the Gulf of Mexico. Notice, that Keith Olbermann of MSNBC-TV reported that the Corexit was promptly laid down to mask the depths of the entire Gulf of Mexico. If we were permitted to view that seabed, we would notice bulging and major fissures, from the Texas coast to the Florida coast. Notice that methane gas has been reported to be rising to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. This is an ominous sign, since any spark from a boat’s ignition or such will cause the greatest surface fire cloud explosion ever witnessed, as well as a catastrophic coast-gobbling tsunami, if the concentration of methane gas builds to high enough levels. Such a catastrophic sea surface methane explosion has already occurred in 1998, and has been reported by Steve Quayle on his web site, stevequayle.com.
The ruling elite have been as suppressive of the science community as of the mass news media. Hence, the people of the World remain unaware until mega disasters send them suddenly reeling in fearful panic. You and I, therefore, have a humanitarian responsibility to disseminate this analysis and to urge others to examine it, and to promote a growing public study of this and so many other alarming meteorological and geological events, which have transpired from the unusual to the commonplace over the past six years.
In a forthcoming message, I will email you a photocopy of the actual New York Times newspaper report, from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, stating that the reason why they launched the Infrared Astronomical Satellite was to detect the infrared light images emitting from this approaching brown dwarf star, this celestial dodge ball (of a mass estimated to be at least 1,000 Earth masses), which is now in our Solar System, menacing Earth, both electromagnetically and
gravitationally.
Finally, see the .jpg photo, attached above, displaying my photocopy of the actual Washington Post front page newspaper report, heralding the discovery of this giant brown dwarf star, on a cometary orbit into our Solar System.
John DiNardo

Did you ever wonder how they came up with the name COREXIT? We did … and it was recently brought to our attention that COREXIT is most probably based on the meme*, “Corrects It!”

We are sure that BP, Halliburton, Transocean, Anadarko, US Coast Guard, EPA, et al. had very high hopes that COREXIT would correct it in the minds of the broad public by making them think that the oil is gone. And, that for those who rely on the mainstream media for their information concerning the status of the BP Gulf oil spill, they probably believe that COREXIT has corrected it all right.

We might also surmise that BP et al. never anticipated that COREXIT would only correct it for a limited period of time before people would start to catch on. That limited period of time has now expired.

The people who live, work and play on or near the Gulf Coast now demand the following:

I. That the US Federal Government issue a cease and desist order to BP concerning the use of the highly toxic dispersant COREXIT anywhere in, on or near the Gulf of Mexico.

II. That the US Federal Government commence the utilization of non-toxic, bio-remediation products on the EPA’s National Contingency Plan list which do not introduce new micro-organisms into the waters. Especially in those coastal areas of LA, AL, MS, FL and TX, which have been determined to require immediate oil spill intervention, and which have been despoiled through the use of COREXIT, the use of these proven products must be implemented immediately.

III. That Nalco Holding Company, the producer and distributor of COREXIT, be barred from doing business within the United States of America. That a restraining order will be enforced so as to lawfully preclude COREXIT from being dispensed into any and all USA territorial waters, as well as all water bodies which are contiguous to or flow into those of the USA.

The following informative video offers a compelling and irrefutable case for these three demands to be acted on with all deliberate speed. This documentary also provides an objective and authoritative assessment supporting our official recommendation from the Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference (GOSRC). The GOSRC is at the hub of a growing number of environmental health advocacies, citizens’ groups and political activist organizations involved with the Gulf oil spill, all of which have demanded the immediate discontinuation of COREXIT in the Gulf of Mexico.

We sincerely invite anyone who views this video to join the ever-increasing demand that a safe, healthy and effective alternative to COREXIT be co-instituted by the US Coast Guard, the EPA and BP. The very life of the Gulf of Mexico greatly depends upon it.

*Subliminal advertising has been a standard operating technique of Madison Avenue as long as there has been a Madison Ave. Subtly and surreptitiously implanting memes, ideas, and emotions is what marketing manipulation is all about. Using subtle word plays is a very clever and purposeful way of moving a lot of people in a pre-determined direction with ease and efficiency.

GOSRC Note: We think it is time to re-label the dispersant known as COREXIT in light of what we now know, and in view of what the EPA, Coast Guard and BP knew when they unlawfully dispensed it throughout the Gulf (See EPA test results below).

Friday, January 28, 2011

[T]he Emerald Coast Surfrider Foundation… will expand its sampling to include sand testing and blood tests for at-risk workers who are worried about possible exposure to harmful toxins after working to clean and protect the community during the oil spill. …

The issue is personal for [Mike Sturdivant, chairman for the foundation]. He said he tested positive last month for large quantities of volatile solvents in his blood stream. …

Tiny creatures have invaded the beaches of SW Florida. While biologists don't know exactly why, algae bloom and/or recent cold weather is thought to be responsible for at least some species of clams, starfish, and prehistoric-looking horseshoe crabs littering the beaches.

Wanting to observe the phenomenon myself, I took a walk, thinking perhaps I'd find a few additional exotic shells for my small collection.

I was stunned at the hordes of colorful little domiciles along the shoreline. Stepping carefully around and over them, I couldn't believe how many lovely shells were washing ashore, including the beautiful orange and brown Fighting Conchs that one doesn't often see intact upon the sand.

It's illegal in Florida, however to walk away with someone else's property, including that of shell-dwelling sea creatures. All I could do was marvel at how many were struggling to move their homes back to the water, a near impossible task as the surf continually pushed them back on the beach.

Dr. Samantha Joye is interviewed by Brandon Sutton at the UGA Oil Spill Symposium on January 26, 2011 for Spirit of the Gulf Coast. Dr. Joye describes the ongoing impact of the BP oil spill, public health concerns, and optimism regarding the Symposium itself.

Dr. Joye was the first scientist to discover underwater plumes of oil in the Gulf of Mexico in the Summer of 2010. Her research is ongoing and she continues to spread awareness of the magnitude of the disaster. You may find out more about her on her blog at http://gulfblog.uga.edu.

The DHL terminal behind our terminal in Houston always has some strange stuff they are shipping.

***Note from Anita: Corexit 9527 is supposed to be the new and improved Corexit dispersant (Corrects It), therefore more toxic and lethal.This video was uploaded to YouTube on Jan 23rd of 2011, less than a week ago. We can only assume that BP and our government are still gassing us with this stuff. Sick people make corporations BIG MONEY!

In the weeks since President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors next to an existing pair of nukes in mostly black Burke County, GA, the inconvenient questions, unanswered and mostly unasked, continue to pile up.

The first and most obvious questions are why nukes, and why Burke County? The answer to "why nukes" is that discussion of the catastrophic risk inherent to nuclear power is pretty much off the table in mainstream media these days. The Obama administration likes to call it "safe nuclear energy," often in the same breath as "clean coal." Both are colossal and equally transparent lies. The 24th anniversary of the horrific nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine on April 24 passed almost unnoticed in the mainstream US media, although video of a brawl over something else in that nation's parliament made most of the networks here. GREENPEACE marked the event with the release of a study by more than 50 scientists across the planet who peg the human toll of Chernobyl at a quarter million cancers, 100,000 of them fatal. Like the anniversary of the disaster itself, the Greenpeace story dropped soundlessly down the memory hole. Our amnesia is nearly perfect. I spoke to a class of journalism students at a local university at the beginning of April. Not a one of them ever heard of Chernobyl, or even of Three Mile Island. So why not nukes?

A second set of questions are why put nukes on a river that's already the 4th most toxic waterway in the nation, on a site just across from the contaminated Savannah River nuclear weapons installation? And if leaky civilian and military nukes really are the job-creating answers to poverty, shouldn't Burke County, GA be one of the wealthiest, instead of the poorest places east of the Mississippi 25 years after its first civilian nukes, and six decades after neighboring towns, some of them all black on the South Carolina side of the river, were bulldozed to create the Savannah River nuclear weapons facility?

A third set of questions are whether anybody is listening to the urgent warnings from nuclear experts that the site's planned next-generation reactors are even less safe than their leaky older cousins? Like most information unfavorable to utility companies and the nuclear industry, these warnings cannot seem to find their way into the mainstream media.

A fourth set of questions are why there are no laws requiring, and no funds to pay for, testing the air, soil, water, fish, wildlife, or the people of mostly black Burke County, who are experiencing an unexplained epidemic of cancer? The people living closest to the new and existing reactors in Waynesboro, GA depend on ground water wells for drinking and bathing water. Ground water is easily contaminated by tritium, a radioactive substance produced in abundance by civilian reactors and used on the other side of the Savannah River to produce nuclear weapons.

CNN aired a brief but excellent report from Shell Bluff, GA April 16 and 19 in which they pointed out that the cancer rate was far higher than that of surrounding communities, and that local residents have held multiple public meetings opposing the new nukes, demanding testing and answers to the widespread local cancer epidemic, to little avail. The residents of Shell Bluff don't understand, the CNN reporter said, why their water and soil is not being tested, why nobody is interested in determining why so many of their friends, family members and neighbors are sickening and dying of cancer.

Perhaps because of the vast amounts of campaign cash the nuclear industry makes available to both Republicans and Democrats, current federal and state laws allow nuclear utilities to do their own testing, and keep the methods, extent and results of that testing confidential. And since 2004 there have been no federal funds provided to the consultants that once did limited testing on the Georgia side of the river. Persistent back channel efforts by local residents and WAND, a local, grassroots and woman-led local organization, may result in some funds being released for testing, but that outcome is by no means certain. It was the tireless work of WAND activists, who are helping locals sue in opposition to the plant's construction and operating permits, which alerted CNN to the story in the first place.

The fifth bunch of unasked and unanswered questions are whether the people in Shell Bluff, GA want more nukes in their backward, and whether the US is democracy-proof enough to put them there anyway. The first part is easy to answer, as CNN discovered. They don't.

"We had protests, and we voiced our opinion," said one local resident, "and we didn't want them, but it's just, you know -- we're just the little peons." When the CNN reporter asked asked two local women whether they thought President Obama had "... done enough to make sure that people like you are safe before new reactors are built?" they opined that the president "... doesn't know we're down here." That kind of answers the second part too, doesn't it?

The last question is whether putting inherently dangerous nukes into mostly black Burke County, GA amounts to environmental racism. I asked Clark Atlanta University's Dr. Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center and the man who first coined the term "environmental racism" to characterize the frequent placement of toxic and dangerous industrial facilities into minority communities. This is what he told us:

"The siting of risky nuclear power plants in Shell Bluff community in Burke County is consistent with the environmental racism pattern I documented in Dumping in Dixie some two decades ago. In Georgia, there are currently three coal fired power plants proposed for mostly black and poor communities with the promise of jobs. In reality, fenceline black community residents don't get the jobs. They get pollution and more poverty. And they get sick."

So the question hangs --- if a black president does it, is it still environmental racism?

Reprinted from Huffington Post.

"A Dec. 17, 2007, press release from Obama’s Senate office read: “Senator Obama unequivocally opposes giving retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies and has cosponsored Senator Dodd’s efforts to remove that provision from the FISA bill. Granting such immunity undermines the constitutional protections Americans trust the Congress to protect. Senator Obama supports a filibuster of this bill, and strongly urges others to do the same.” Six months later, he supports immunity for the companies that spied on Americans." Amy Goodman

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2011) — To combat last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill, nearly 800,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were injected directly into the oil and gas flow coming out of the wellhead nearly one mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, as scientists begin to assess how well the strategy worked at breaking up oil droplets, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) chemist Elizabeth B. Kujawinski and her colleagues report that a major component of the dispersant itself was contained within an oil-gas-laden plume in the deep ocean and had still not degraded some three months after it was applied.

While the results suggest the dispersant did mingle with the oil and gas flowing from the mile-deep wellhead, they also raise questions about what impact the deep-water residue of oil and dispersant -- which some say has its own toxic effects -- might have had on environment and marine life in the Gulf.

"This study gives our colleagues the first environmental data on the fate of dispersants in the spill," said Kujawinski, who led a team that also included scientists from UC Santa Barbara. "These data will form the basis of toxicity studies and modeling studies that can assess the efficacy and impact of the dispersants.

"We don't know if the dispersant broke up the oil," she added. "We found that it didn't go away, and that was somewhat surprising."

The study, which appears online Jan. 26 in the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal Environmental Science &Technology, is the first peer-reviewed research to be published on the dispersant applied to the Gulf spill and the first data in general on deep application of a dispersant, according to ACS and Kujawinski. Some previous studies had indicated that dispersants applied to surface oil spills can help prevent surface slicks from endangering marshes and coastlines.

Kujawinski and her colleagues found one of the dispersant's key components, called DOSS (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate), was present in May and June -- in parts-per-million concentrations--in the plume from the spill more than 3,000 feet deep. The plume carried its mixture of oil, natural gas and dispersant in a southwest direction, and DOSS was detected there at lower (parts-per-billion) concentrations in September.

Gulf residents say the firm that's being paid to handle compensation claims from BP's oil spill seems to be denying the claims of many of those most in need.

January 27, 2011

"I JUST got off the phone with Feinberg's people, and I'm really upset," says seafood merchant Michelle Chauncey from Barataria, La. Her business, which sells wholesale and retail crabs, has not provided her with an income since the end of May, and her home is being foreclosed.

Attorney Kenneth Feinberg's Washington-based firm, Feinberg Rozen, has been paid $850,000 a month by BP to administer a $20 billion compensation fund and claims process for Gulf residents and fishermen affected by the Deepwater Horizon explosion last April.

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), which Feinberg manages, was set up after negotiations between BP and the Obama administration, but over recent months, there has been growing concern among the Coast's residents that Feinberg is limiting compensation funds to claimants in order to decrease BP's liability.

Late last month, Feinberg told Bloomberg Television that he anticipates that about half of the $20 billion fund should be enough to cover claims for economic losses. "It remains to be seen, but I would hope that half that money would be more than enough to pay all the claims," he said.

Chauncey is angry. "[Kenneth] Feinberg told me personally I had a legitimate claim, and that he was going to personally look into my claim and see why I wasn't being paid," she explains, adding that one of Feinberg's colleagues gave her his personal number and promised to help.

"I told Feinberg's man that I know strippers who have gotten money. So if I took off my clothes...and worked in a bar, I'd have been paid, but since I have a seafood business, I haven't been paid."

"The really sad part is that my story is not isolated," Chauncey adds. "There are loads of us, and they are all in the same predicament as I am."

Rudy Toler from Gulfport, Mississippi is a fourth generation fisherman. He submitted 62 pages of documentation to the GCCF, but says: "My claim got denied on December 4, with about 100,000 other people."

The GCCF, which also covers cleanup and remediation costs, has received more than 468,000 claims and has paid about $2.7 billion to approximately 170,000 claimants (about one-third of those who have submitted claims) in the last four months.

Most of the claims that have been paid are temporary emergency payments. "You've paid 30 percent of the claims," Gulf Shores City councilman Jason Dyken told Feinberg at a recent meeting in Gulf Shores, Ala. "Seventy percent of the claims have not been paid. Where I went to school that's an 'F.'"

The amount paid out averages nearly $16,000 per claimant. But according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the 2009 poverty threshold for a family of three was $18,310. With mounting problems from an escalating health crisis and decimated fishing and tourist industries, many consider this an inadequate amount of compensation for their loss of livelihood.

Feinberg has recently been on a tour of the Gulf Coast, holding public forums where he has often been faced with throngs of enraged residents and fishermen.

While Feinberg admits that mistakes have been made in processing claims, he has also said that many claims lack sufficient documentation to warrant payment. "I'm trying to do the right thing," Feinberg has said. "This is an unprecedented job. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of claims. But we're getting through them, and the money is going out."

During his recent visit to the Gulf, Feinberg said: "I will bend over backwards to pay claims." But large numbers of Gulf residents and fishermen beg to differ.

"Last week, I spoke up at the Town Hall meeting in Bay St. Louis, and Feinberg told me to give him my number and information and he would personally take care of it," Toler says. "Here it is a week later and I've not heard from him. You can't get answers from nobody. Nobody. Now, I'm 15 days past due on my rent. It don't seem right to me."

Like Chauncey, Toler is angered by seeing residents who are not directly involved in the seafood industry being awarded compensation checks, while those who are have their claims denied. "It's very frustrating," he says. "They say on the news they are going to help the fishermen and the people who deserve it while we aren't getting the help, but the people at Burger King and other stores are getting paid."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FEINBERG'S CLAIMS operation is now offering three options to claimants:

-- Final settlements for all present and future damages that require the claimant to agree not to seek future compensation or sue anyone involved in last year's oil spill.

-- Smaller interim claims that do not require a lawsuit waiver.

-- Quick payments of $5,000 for individuals or $25,000 for businesses that require a lawsuit waiver but, unlike final or interim payments, do not call for financial documentation. Only those approved last year for emergency claims can take a quick payment.

Attorney Brian Donovan, with the Donovan Law Group in Tampa, Florida, believes Feinberg is simply doing what he is being paid by BP to do. "He's doing his job," Donovan says. "Feinberg is a defense attorney representing BP. To think otherwise is being foolish. As a defense attorney, he's doing a great job for BP. But they are saying 'go with us, or sue us.'"

Donovan has written:

In lieu of ensuring that BP oil spill victims are made whole, the primary goal of GCCF and Feinberg is the limitation of BP's liability via the systematic postponement, reduction and denial of claims against BP. Victims of the BP oil spill must understand that "Administrator" Feinberg is merely a defense attorney zealously advocating on behalf of his client BP.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

This is the Official Online (Youtube) Release of "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" by Peter Joseph. [30 subtitles pending]

On Jan. 15th, 2011, "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" was released theatrically to sold out crowds in 60 countries; 31 languages; 295 cities and 341 Venues. It has been noted as the largest non-profit independent film release in history.

This is a non-commercial work and is available online for free viewing and no restrictions apply to uploading/download/posting/linking - as long as no money is exchanged.

A Free DVD Torrent of the full 2 hr and 42 min film in 30 languages is also made available through the main website [below], with instructions on how one can download and burn the movie to DVD themselves. His other films are also freely available in this format.

This is the highlight of the public response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Commission's final report. January 12th 2 members of the commission, after presenting their findings to the president, revealed their conclusions directly to some of those affected by the disaster.

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc was accused by lawyers for victims of the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history of breaking civil racketeering laws by engaging in a pattern of violations that led to the disaster.

“BP engaged in a pattern of fraudulent conduct directed at regulators from the inception of the Macondo project, continuing through and after the spill and to this day,” Stephen Herman and James Roy, lawyers for hundreds of oil-spill victims, said yesterday in a filing in federal court in New Orleans. “BP’s fraudulent actions and omissions were part of a broader pattern of unlawful conduct that it has employed over the years to place profits over safety.”

Herman and Roy are liaison counsel for a committee representing plaintiffs in more than 400 lawsuits over damages for personal and economic injuries caused by last April’s explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the Louisiana coast.

The rig, which was owned by a unit of Transocean Ltd., was drilling the well, named Macondo, for BP at the time of the blast. BP is the only company named as a defendant in the spill victims’ master civil RICO complaint.

Daren Beaudo, a BP spokesman, declined to comment on the filing.

Also yesterday, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood asked the judge overseeing oil-spill litigation against London-based BP to take an oversight role to “correct deficiencies” in the $20 billion spill-claims fund run by Kenneth Feinberg.

‘Legitimate Claims’

Feinberg has been criticized by spill victims’ lawyers for his administration of the claims process through which BP has said it would pay “all legitimate claims” filed by people and businesses damaged by the spill. Critics contend Feinberg has delayed or denied claims without adequate explanation and established protocols that encourage cash-strapped claimants to accept small, quick payments to avoid years of litigation.

“It is the state’s position that this court has jurisdiction over the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, including its administrator Kenneth Feinberg,” Hood said in papers filed in federal court in New Orleans. Feinberg’s fund “is nothing more than a surrogate for BP in the administration of the claims process that BP is required to provide” under federal law, Hood said.

Amy Weiss, a spokeswoman for Feinberg, declined to comment.

Hood said Feinberg hasn’t cooperated with the attorneys general of the five Gulf Coast states or changed the fund’s claims payment process as they requested. He attached 61 pages of correspondence between the state attorneys general and Feinberg fund officials.

Release Required

Requiring claimants to release BP and all companies involved in the spill from liability for any future damages to settle their claims quickly is unfair, Hood wrote Feinberg on Nov. 9.

“Only people who are beaten down, poor, and/or desperate would agree to the terms of the proposed release,” Hood said. “The excessive breadth of the release will lead the public to believe” that the fund’s goal “is not to assist people in the Gulf, but to assist BP in taking advantage of this downtrodden group of people,” he said.

BP’s own report into the Deepwater Horizon disaster placed much of the blame on its contractors, including rig owner Transocean and Halliburton Energy Services, which provided cementing services for the well. BP has consistently maintained that cost considerations don’t compromise safety in company operations.

Racketeering Allegations

Herman and Roy claim in their 93-page filing yesterday that BP knowingly broke U.S. environmental laws, skirted federal rules and regulations governing offshore oil and gas extraction, and misrepresented its ability to stop and clean up a deepwater spill.

They cite examples of BP conduct taken from reports issued by the Obama administration’s presidential spill commission and the University of California at Berkeley’s Deepwater Horizon Study Group. Details are also drawn from documents and testimony presented to Congress and a joint panel of offshore regulators and the U.S. Coast Guard, which is also investigating the incident.

‘Disastrous Incidents’

The Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill “were foreshadowed by a string of disastrous incidents and near misses in BP’s operations on land and at sea,” Herman and Roy said. “BP has, since at least 2001, used this enterprise to conduct the related acts of mail and wire fraud comprising the pattern of racketeering.”

The victims’ lawyers claim BP overlooked or downplayed the importance of “significant problems related to the Deepwater Horizon’s equipment and maintenance.” The rig was leased to BP for its entire nine-year history.

BP was “on notice” of problems concerning the rig’s blowout preventer, alarm systems, ballast systems and other “significant deficiencies” after a September 2009 company audit of the Deepwater Horizon found 390 overdue maintenance jobs, many of which were of high priority, the lawyers said.

They also claim BP well managers intentionally misrepresented portions of the Macondo well-drilling plan to regulators and misled spill responders on the best methods for stopping the underwater gusher, which released more than 4.1 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

The case is In Re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, 2:10-md-2179, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).

Monday, January 24, 2011

I am no writer, what I am is an observer. What I have seen over the last few months is very sad to say the least. It's bad enough we are being lied to on a regular bases by the people who are in charge of this world we live in.They sadly would not know the truth if jumped up and bit them in their own a**. But they honestly think that the majority of the people believe them, sadly that is the only truth they have. When did the people become so blind? How can they not see things for what they really are? When did the people of this world become so complacent? When did they stop asking and questioning what is really going on? How could we have put so much control into the hands of so many untrustworthy people? When we all wake up from this nightmare and decide NO MORE? When it's too late? When we can not change it because it is too far gone? That's what i see, I see the future as it has been for awhile now. We wake from our slumber and sit and whine because it's too late to change it. We should have done something long ago but we were too busy at that time.

I am not and will not judge anyone for their choices.That is not in my power, I do not have that right.What right I do have is to judge myself. To take a long hard look at myself and make sure I have done right.Can I live with the decisions I have made through out this disaster I have been involved with for 9 months 4 days. Can I walk with my head held high? Have my words or my actions helped and not hurt people involved in this fight. Have I fought hard enough for the greater good? Have I treated people with the same respect I expect from them for myself? Can I lay my head upon my pillow at night, close my eyes, and rest with a clear mind,heart, and soul? I believe this is a question so many in this fight need to ask themselves every night. As long as you have peace in that answer ,whatever it may be , then I believe you are good with you.But if you find yourself questioning anything you may have done or said them my friend I say to you this,Make peace with yourself and your maker. Figure out how you can make the wrong RIGHT!!! Learn something from every mistake you make. Take that lesson and apply it to the next situation that comes at you. Remember this : When you close your eyes for the final time the only thing that goes with you is what is in your soul. You take no fame, no money, no personal possessions all of that stays here. What you leave behind is as important as what you take with you. By this I mean your legacy is it what you want the most important people in your life to be proud of you for.Ask yourself this everyday, Did I somehow leave this day with more positive than negative.If this is my last day here on this earth will my family and friends be proud of me? Can I walk into the light with peace in my soul.

With every action you will get a reaction...Hummm what a great phrase..Let me explain myself you see they say if your action is always a positive action you will get a positive reaction, not necessarily.Yes to my complete disbelief and I am sure to yours a most positive action,event,words, whatever, I have witnessed bring about the most negative of reactions. This along with everything else negative in this fight for some of the simplest of things like human rights has affected me to the core. I sit in a state of disbelief 90% of the time as I watch so many people who started this with all good intentions just make some of the worst choices for themselves and the well being of others. Where have the morals of the masses gone? When did the higher power die and make you in charge of all of humanity.Again soul check here people.

When you sit upon a thrown built by yourself and judge everyone and everything all I can say to that is "WOW"!!! That scares me as it should you.We are all human , some more than others, but still human. We are going to make mistakes , judge yourself alone on those decisions.Leave the judgment of others to the one appointed for the job. NOT YOU!! Karma has it's way of making the rounds. Keep in mind what karma it is you want for yourself. Maybe that will somehow help you make different choices sometime.

There are so many things I can think of that need to change. So many things needing to be done.We are 9 months into this and really have no more answers than we did 8 months ago, that fact is very sad. Because had the RIGHT things been done from the start we could be so much further in this fight.We could have tons more answers then the same questions. The blame for this problem well I am sure I could sit here for days placing blame where it belongs in each and every single part of this whole situation but what will it do for moving ahead? We all know what needs to be done.We all know what we need to do as an individual, we all know what needs to be done as a society. We as a collective already know the answers to the problems. Our biggest problem is being aloud to carry out the right solutions. Those of you on ground floor of this fight know exactly what I mean.Sadly enough the powers in charge will only allow what they deem allowable. Whether that be the right thing or the wrong. You see with them it isn't a matter of right or wrong, it is about what fits their agenda. If your solution isn't a value part of their puzzle then i am sorry it doesn't fit. So at that point do we just give up, do we just resolve ourselves to the fact they win. No never of coarse not. But we have to ban together stop the separation put the egos aside OMG can't you see that's how they have been able to win. That's how they play they count on the masses eating each other like wolves. The separation of the packs and the pitting against each other,the hey you what are you doings.The I have done this. Instead of the gather of the masses to say "HEY YOU THIS IS RIGHT, THIS IS WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE .WE PUT YOU IN CHARGE WE WILL TAKE THAT POWER AWAY UNLESS YOU DO THE RIGHT THING. If we can all somehow come together WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!!! JUST SAYIN'

Our joy and our sadness begins with our emotions, rising, welling up like a spring or a fountain...
Washing us clean...
Our connection to the Mother is by grounding, planting ourselves to her body, like a tree and it's lifeforce, and sending out that energy...
Our tie to the sea is the flow of our tears...
Salt water to purify...
We are intertwined with the Sea and with the Land...
Tears are the colorful ribbons connecting all in beauty and love...

(NaturalNews) Even the most creative science fiction movie could not have concocted the reality of what is taking place both in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world right now. Genetically-modified (GM), oil-eating bacteria introduced into the Gulf as part of the oil disaster's remediation efforts is reportedly causing the emergence of various other mutant bacteria, as well as increasingly-severe harm to humans and the environment.

Back in August, NaturalNews covered the story of Tel Aviv University scientists' proposal to use a natural oil-eating bacteria to help clean up the Gulf (http://www.naturalnews.com/029375_o...). But reports have now revealed that both scientists and BP knew of a "super" bacteria that was programmed to eat oil twice as fast as normal and set loose in the Gulf.

Mike Utsler, Chief Operating Officer of BP's Gulf Coast Restoration, publicly told BBC reporters that "[t]here is a new form of microbiology that is attacking this (oil) plume and using it as a food source." Shortly after admitting this on camera, other BP officials abruptly interjected and ended the interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuDO0l8K90I

J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., founder of Synthetic Genomics Inc., also admitted before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce that such synthetic bacteria "are simply created de novo by chemical synthesis and assembled into entire chromosomes and organisms." He went on to add that the technology "can catalyze a major change in what organisms can be engineered to do."

Though seemingly beneficial in theory, this GM bacteria is now replicating and spawning all sorts of mutated bacteria throughout the Gulf, and is gradually spreading throughout the oceans of the world. And when combined with chemical Corexit and the other toxic applications sprayed all over Gulf waters, it is a recipe for complete disaster that is now coming to fruition in the form of serious harm to humans.

Dr. Thomas B. Manton, who recently died while serving an unlawful sentence in the Florida State Prison System, prepared A Presentation to President Barack Obama on the BP Gulf Oil Spill. This informal presentation was prepared and submitted by Tom in the days just prior to the start of his 15 year incarceration.

It is important to note that some of Tom’s first challenges in the oil spill control arena began in the Middle East. During the late 1970′s and early 80′s, Saudi Arabia was being particularly vexed by the oil spills contaminating their multi-million dollar desalinization plants along their coasts. The huge, expensive, filtration membranes were constantly being ruined by the spilt oil, as other parts of the desalinization process were also compromised.

Needless to say, these early challenges forced Tom to think outside the box, since the purity and cleanliness of the water was of paramount importance to the Saudis. It wasn’t just a matter of cleaning up the spilt oil. It had to be done in the smartest way possible, free of toxic side effects, collateral damage to the environment or unintended consequences of any kind. Tom established numerous protocols and procedures during the earliest days of organized oil spill control; if these processes were currently in place, the oceans of the world would not be in such jeopardy.

The fruit of his contemplation of these matters was never enjoyed by BP or many of the other big oil companies. As a matter fact, Tom always said that BP was consistently on the other side of the playing field. Their preferred method of oil spill remediation was to disappear it with dispersants; what we called the pharmaceutical approach of treating the symptoms fast to make them go away. Then, out of sight, out of mind.

The biggest obstacle to overcoming this inherently flawed institutional approach was that the Oil & Gas Industry was so invested in dispersant companies. Just as BP and Exxon Mobil are heavily invested in Nalco Holding Company, the manufacturers of COREXIT. Tom saw early on that the momentum was clearly moving in that direction, given the evolving institutional arrangements whereby many of these companies enjoyed interlocking directorates, partnerships around various enterprises, and customer loyalties to each other’s products and services.

Truly, if the numerous protocols and various processes/procedures which he was successful at instituting during the earliest days of organized oil spill control were currently in place, the oceans of the world would not be in such jeopardy. Perhaps by reading and disseminating his words, we will increase the likelihood that reason will prevail in this ongoing global discourse about finally transitioning the planet away from the hydrocarbon fuel paradigm.

1/16/2011
The Honorable Barack Obama
The President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Re: The environmental impact of dispersing Corexit during and after the oil spill
Dear Mr. President;
The BP incident in the Gulf of Mexico has now been acknowledged as the greatest manmade disaster in history but there is yet another manmade disaster that must not be overlooked and has not been adequately addressed in the recently released report of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
That second major disaster has been caused by the unnecessary use of the toxin Corexit dispersant. In early May of 2010 just after the crisis began, I requested that our Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell use whatever legal means were necessary to stop the use of this toxin. Shortly thereafter, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal requested that the use of this toxic dispersant be discontinued because of the long-term environmental damage. And still later, it was reported in the media that you also ordered BP to stop using Corexit. Surprisingly, I also read in the media that they even refused your request.
Mr. President, my concern is that this toxic and damaging chemical is still being used and it will compound the long-term damage to our state, our citizens, our eco-system, our economy, our seafood industry, our wildlife and our culture.
I am well aware that our emphasis, resources and energy is currently engaged working through the administrative and legal proceedings of the oil disaster but we must also recognize and begin the same process to address the damage Corexit has done and will continue to do as we go forward.
As the State Senator for District 1 in the southeastern corner of the State of Louisiana representing the parishes of St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Orleans and Plaquemines, I respectfully request that you have your administrative officials provide the information requested in this letter. I need to make that information available to my constituents who are seeing their lives and lands threatened and their way of life hanging in the balance. Due to the threats to public safety and ecological realities, I am compelled to write this letter requesting answers to my questions regarding the role of the United States Government in administering the response to the crises in the Gulf. It is apparent that the response directed by our government was inadequate because it allowed the use of Corexit dispersants which increased the toxicity level of the spilled oil and delivered no substantial benefit.
Corexit dispersants increased the toxicity of the oil itself when the two were mixed together. Its use caused the cross contamination of the Gulf water column by forcing the transfer of the surface oil downward through the water column, causing the oil to sink to the Gulf floor. The result was an unnecessary elevated negative impact as this same oil moved ashore later to the tidal zones delivering toxic weathered oil to coastal residents, tourists and businesses and workers in the Gulf region.
Government officials stated over and over that the use of the dispersants was designed to break up the oil into smaller digestible parts to be consumed by the sub-sea living micro-organisms. This strategy is unsubstantiated. In fact, the Corexit dispersant created the opposite results since Corexit contains toxic ingredients which act as biocides to prevent microbial digestion of the oil. Physical evidence supports that the entire response administered by government agencies have been inadequate.
Independent scientists have reported the waters and our shores of the Gulf are toxic. It has been reported that the toxins in the Gulf waters are directly linked to the distribution of dispersants (Corexit 9500 and 9527A) introduced this summer (and since then) during the BP disaster. It has not all evaporated (gassed off) or digested by the microbes and the remaining contamination needs to be cleaned up and not hidden so that the toxins can be removed quickly from our Gulf for the safety of our citizens and to allow what remaining species of sea and wild life to recover; if at all possible.
Immediately following the accident, I spent a great deal of time researching this issue and met with numerous eminently qualified scientists and professionals with the hope of being able to save our coastal zone with the use of “bio-friendly” oil dispersants which I learned was available, safer, non-toxic and proven to be effective.
Today, 9 months after the accident, there is still no plan by the United States Government to clean up the toxin Corexit. Many are concerned that the oil laced with this toxic dispersant is still in the Gulf being moved constantly by currents throughout the ecosystem spreading contamination.
It is well known by many reputable scientists and environmental watchdog groups that non-toxic bio-remediation products, such as “OSE-II” was and is available. It has been used all over the world by many countries, contractors, private industry and the United States military and has been proven to be a safe solution in the past. Moreover, these types of products possess unique properties such as hydraulic lift (causes oil to float) so that the sunken oil can be raised from the sediments and detoxified.
I believe that the officials at the BP science labs have been disingenuous about their supposed desire to protect the aquiculture of the Gulf and the livelihood of the families who harvest the fisheries of the Gulf, in that they have intentionally excluded safe, non-toxic and proven bio-remediation technology to clean up the oil and toxins. BP’s refusal to use bio-remediation products to restore Gulf waters to pre-spill conditions is very disturbing to me since the EPA and USCG has approved bio-remediation for the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska years ago. BP has also used non-toxic bio-remediation technology in the Caribbean and in Africa. RPT 6 of the EPA has used OSE-II in U.S. waters as well.
Was the toxin Corexit used because it dropped the oil from the surface so it would appear that the problem was solved? Was it ever discussed that the dropping of the oil would render the huge undertaking of placing booms useless? The earthen berms called for by Plaquemines Parish President Nungesser and Governor Jindal was our only defense after the use of Corexit was employed as we witnessed in disbelief oil coming to our shores under the booms.
Please have your administration provide answers to the following questions.
1. Have acutely toxic chemical compounds been formed by the mixing of Gulf crude with toxic dispersants (Corexit 9500 and 9527A) applied individually or in a mixed ratio? If such chemicals have been mixed, please provide the ratios and provide the names of the other chemicals with which Corexit was mixed.
2. Other acutely toxic compounds have been found in the air, water, and sediments in the Gulf. Have they evaporated off with the aid of dispersants? Have your scientist reported that these compounds have come ashore, contaminating our coastal communities?
3. Is the oil spilled truly cleaned up, or has it been transformed through the evaporation and loss of lighter-chain hydrocarbons, leaving the heavier, longer-chain hydrocarbons in the water and sediments to continue delivering toxins to those exposed to them through time, which includes all the aquatic life within the Gulf waters?
4. What levels of toxins can humans safely tolerate if these toxins are taken in either by ingestion or by direct exposure from the air or water?
5. Are the Gulf waters safe? If so, define “safe.” Please define the test methods used to determine water quality and safety to assist independent scientists to verify these results.
6. Is Gulf seafood safe? If so, define “safe.” Please define the test methods used to determine safety to assist independent scientists to verify these results. The independent smell test by the USDA has on occasion proven to be inaccurate. What test equipment is being employed? USDA Director Steve Wilson will not declare verbally.
7. Were our Gulf waters safe prior to the recent 4,200 square mile ban by NOAA? If so, when? Please describe the testing methods and proof that it was safe. Where are the test data and a description of test methods that proved it was safe? What tests or methods were used to prove it was unsafe?
8. Have our Gulf onshore breezes been safe, specifically from May/June and from 2010 to present? Environmental monitoring by the federal government has surely occurred since the accident and test results as well as a description of test methods and findings should be available by now. Much is still missing in this area of data on numerous agency web sites. Please provide them. Independent scientists have reported the presence of PAH’s, 2-butoxy-ethanol and other toxic compounds in the air and in onshore rainfall. Please provide any data available on this issue, including their effects on humans, and confirm if the public should be concerned about bio-accumulation in commercial seafood or not. If indeed there is any risk of bio-accumulation, then know that it is possible to detoxify the soil and ground water, if necessary. Both NOAA and the EPA data together with some of BP’s data are contradictory within their own summations. We just need transparency regarding these issues.
9. What is the impact of prolonged exposure to these chemicals on humans in terms of toxicity and illness? What are the symptoms associated with various exposures? I ask this because in the Exxon-Valdez accident, it has been reported that all who participated in the clean up activity died within 20+ years of the accident. Understanding the chemical characteristics of the toxins used and mixed with the oil is important.
10. With respect to water samples taken by EPA and NOAA, please provide the test data and a description of test methods regarding poly-propanol, 2-butoxy ethanol, ethylene glycol, total hydrocarbons and PAH’s in the water column, not just the surface waters. Reports of chemicals in the water melting the plastics or rubber products such as diving suits and gasket seals have been reported and documented. Also, fishermen have discovered the bottoms of their crab traps dissolved or were heavily coated with rubbery tar-type oil.
11. Does the toxic effects of the dispersant Corexit 9500/9527A mixed with light sweet crude confirm that the toxicity level is increased for living organisms?
Understanding that bacteria are living organisms, I have yet to discover any definitive proof that natural bio-remediation of the weathered oil is possible by using Corexit. The claims by EPA officials and Coast Guard personnel have been confirmed to be false since 1992 (EPA/NETAC Test 1992). This is critical because it is apparent that the toxin Corexit administered did nothing but drop and hide the oil allowing for vast amounts of oil and toxins to be released well below the surface in to the water columns and the food chain. Further, it has been suggested that the toxicity level may increase with time after a spill. There is definitive proof that natural bio-remediation was a viable alternative for use at the time of the disaster and that it can still be used after the natural crude has been dispersed. It is still possible to clean up the water, the coastal lands, the marsh grass areas, the sandy beaches, the water column and the oil on the Gulf floor. EPA has approved bio-remediation products on the NCP list such as OSE-II that can raise the sunken oil to the surface for a safe natural conversion to CO2 and water which will detoxify the water column and restore the Gulf waters to pre-spill conditions. It was recommended for use in the clean up effort by the USCG Testing lab on July 10, 2010 to the FOSC (Federal on Scene Coordinator), however no action was taken. For unknown reasons, the EPA has blocked its use and continues to deny requests for use by both BP and the Louisiana DEQ.
Today in Louisiana and the other affected Gulf states, the health and welfare of our citizens, public safety, economic pain and environmental unknowns exist and the time to address this critical issue is now.
We will not be fooled in to believing that the oil and the toxins are gone. Because the toxic dispersants have been, and are still being used today, the oil is being forced downward in to the water columns and then carried endlessly around and about by the Gulf currents adversely affecting our environment.
On behalf of the citizens of all of the states on the Gulf coast, I strongly urge you to employ all of the resources you have available to guarantee a safe and healthy future for those of us in the Gulf coast states by joining with us to make sure safe non-toxic bio-remediation technology is put in to use immediately.
It is my sincere hope that this request is answered in a timely fashion so that I can advise my constituents.
I appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter.
Respectfully,
A.G. Crowe
State Senator
District 1
State of Louisiana
cc: Vice President Biden: Vice President of the United States of America
Dept of Environmental Protection Agency: (Secretary Lisa. P. Jackson, Dana Tullis, Sam Coleman, Craig Carroll, Gregory J Wilson
Dept. of Defense: (Robert Gates)
Members of the Joint Chiefs: Secretary of the Navy / Secretary of the Army
(US Coast Guard) Incident Commander Ret. Admiral Thad Allen,
Adm. James A Watson, Adm. Mary E Landry, Adm. Paul Zunkunft)
Dept of Justice: (Attorney General-Eric H. Holder, Jr.)
Dept of Interior: (Kenneth Salazar)
Dept. of Agriculture: (Thomas J. Villach)
Dept. of Commerce: (Gary F. Locke)
Dept of Health and Human Services: (Kathleen Sebelius)
Dept of Energy: (Steven Chu)
Dept of Homeland Security: (Janet Napolitano, Thad Allen)
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley
Florida Governor Rick Scott
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
Texas Governor Rick Perry
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell
Alabama Attorney General Troy King
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
Louisiana Secretary of Wildlife & Fisheries Robert Barham
Louisiana Secretary of Dept. of Environmental Quality Peggy Hatch
Garret Graves, Louisiana Governor’s Office of Coastal Protection
Louisiana Secretary of Department of Health & Hospitals Bruce Greenstien
Senator Mary L. Landrieu
Senator David Vitter
Congressman Steve Scalise
Congressman Cedric L. Richmond
Congressman Jeff Landry
Congressman John Fleming
Congressman Rodney Alexander
Congressman Bill Cassidy
Congressman Charles Boustany
Louisiana Senate President Joel T. Chaisson, III
Louisiana Speaker of the House Tucker
Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard
Florida Speaker of the House Dean Cannon
Mississippi Speaker of the House William J. McCoy
Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus
Alabama Senate President, Lt. Governor, Jim Folsom, Jr.
Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos
Mississippi Senate President, Lt. Governor, Phil Bryant
Texas Senate President, Lt. Governor, David Dewhurst
Mr. Sean Hannity
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser
St. Bernard Parish President Craig P. Taffaro, Jr.
Acadia Parish President A. J. Credeur
Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez
Assumption Parish President Martin S. Triche
Calcasieu Parish President Guy Brame
Cameron Parish President Charles Precht, III
Iberia Parish President Ernest Freyou
Iberville Parish President J. Mitchell Ourso, Jr.
Jefferson Parish President John F. Young, Jr.
Jefferson Davis Parish President Donald Woods
Lafayette Parish President Joey Durel
Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph
St. Charles Parish President V. J. St. Pierre, Jr.
St. James Parish President Dale Hymel, Jr.
St. John the Baptist Parish President Natalie Robottom
St. Martin Parish President Guy Cormier
St. Mary Parish President Paul P. Naquin, Jr.
St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis
Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet
Vermilion Parish President Wayne Touchet